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Popel Vooje

4484 posts

Edited Aug 18, 2010, 18:44

Ivory Wave bath salts

Aug 18, 2010, 18:42

Reading the thread about Sir Ian Gilmore, I felt it might be of interest to point out that the war on drugs has found itself a new bogeyman already:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/aug/17/ivory-wave-drug-alleged-death

I'm normally extremely sceptical about reports like this, regardless of whether they appear in reactionary right wing rags like the Daily Mail or the supposedly more liberal media.

Nonetheless, there is a caveat here. I went clubbing on my birthday weekend with three friends who'd bought some of this stuff, and whilst none of them met their untimely ends, all testified that it was one of the most unpleasant drug experiences that they'd ever had. One had a panic attack and had to leave the club, one vomited profusely, and one had a breakdown and ended up hospitalised and eventually living back with his parents a few weeks later - although I'm not trying to imply that Ivory Wave was the cause of this, it may have been one of several factors that triggered it. None of them had drunk any alcohol, as there is a clear warning on the back of the packet that that mixing Ivory wave with booze can cause the user to go into a coma.

Overall I'm not sorry I opted not to try this particular concoction Could it be that the media panic is actually justified for once? Or are the press merely doing what they usually do and focussing on one substance at the expense of several others which those who are alleged to have died had ingested as well? I'm buggered if I know - but either way the profusion of legal substances like this on the market is surely further proof that the war on drugs isn't being won. I've no doubt that as soon as it gets banned another slight variation on the same chemical compound will
appear on the market virtually overnight.

Cases like this also highlight how dangerous mass ignorance can be - if ecstacy had never been outlawed, I wonder how many former users would be interested in trying legal substances like this which are potentially far more dangerous in the first place.

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Re: Ivory Wave bath salts (grufty jim)

grufty jim

1770 posts

Re: Ivory Wave bath salts

Aug 18, 2010, 19:07

I've never heard of this Ivory Wave stuff, but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if it's little short of pure poison. Out of curiosity, I tried a few of those "legal smoking mixtures" that were all the rage recently (and have since been banned here in Ireland). Unlike pot, with which I have a very pleasant relationship, they made me rather paranoid (I know cannabis has that effect on many people, but never on me) and one of them gave me a really nasty headache.

It's wrong to say that X drug (whether it's cannabis, heroin or alcohol) is 100% safe. There'll always be those who have bad reactions, and those who consume it in doses they can't handle. But with something like pot, there's literally thousands of years of field-tests to demonstrate that whatever else it might be, it's not actually toxic. Prohibiting it, however, creates a massive incentive for enterprising (and perhaps unscrupulous) chemists to come up with alternatives that are technically legal. Untested and essentially unmonitored, these substances emerge into the market and have the potential to wreak havoc.

I'm quite convinced that one of these legal highs is going to leak out eventually that results in a significant number of deaths. This will then be blamed on "drugs" in the abstract, or on the victims themselves, or on the owners of headshops. The vile irony is, however, that it is those levelling the blame -- the politicians and their tabloid bosses -- who will be truly responsible.

For it is prohibition that is the real "drugs problem".

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Ivory Wave bath salts (Popel Vooje)

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Re: Ivory Wave bath salts (Popel Vooje)

Popel Vooje

4484 posts

Re: Ivory Wave bath salts

Aug 20, 2010, 17:03

grufty jim wrote:

I'm quite convinced that one of these legal highs is going to leak out eventually that results in a significant number of deaths. This will then be blamed on "drugs" in the abstract, or on the victims themselves, or on the owners of headshops. The vile irony is, however, that it is those levelling the blame -- the politicians and their tabloid bosses -- who will be truly responsible.

For it is prohibition that is the real "drugs problem".

Agreed - the very reason I started this thread was because I believe Ivory Wave could turn out to be the one that does cause a soignificant number of deaths.

Incidentally, my own experience of legals has been no less rocky than yours - I tried quite a few of the BZP-based pills that appeared on the martket a few years ago, and the effect of the strongest one - Triple X - was similar to that of three lines of cheap sulphate cut with a dose of equally poor quality coke.

I was told it didn't have the comedown you get with Es, but it kept me awake for 24 hours afterwards, whereas with Es I've always been able to just go home afterwards and sleep it off. Admittedly, you do feel a bit spaced out for a couple of days afterwards, but it's nothing compared the dehydration, insomnia, paranoia and depression I felt the day after after taking BZP - a substance I doubt would ever have been marketed at clubbers if it wasn't for the fact that Ecstacy is illegal.

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Re: Ivory Wave bath salts (grufty jim)

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